Family Pics 2010

We just had family pictures taken a couple weeks ago. It was hot (93* when we finished at 9:30am) and past nap time for Walt, so I was happy we got as good of shots as we did. I think it could have been better if the weather had been more favorable. We were seriously wiping sweat off our faces the entire shoot.

It was the first and last time he will wear those shoes.

Last photo of the day.

Not really a keeper, but it's pretty accurate.

cute hug.

Walter is such a snuggler sometimes. Especially when he's feeling shy or tired (both here).

Squishy hug. Not sure he appreciates that one...

Love this one.

It's too bad the best pic of Walter was not the best of the rest of us.

It's too hot! No more pictures please!!!

Get me out of here!

That camera looks very interesting!

Aw sweet. This is so not Matt's style, but it makes for a cute pic.

Not sure I like the new uploading and what not. It makes it more difficult to move pictures around in the post and add real text (as opposed to captions).

My preparedness project

Well, my thoughts have been filled with preparedness this year for some reason. Maybe it's because the January Ensign was full of preparedness articles. Maybe it's all the crazy earthquakes and natural disasters, job losses, etc. that have happened this past year.

The thing that keeps coming to my mind is, "If I had to [live off my food storage, use/make cloth diapers, make my own clothes, go "raw", make my own furniture, etc.], could I? I mean, I don't think I'll have to do all of these things, but it is interesting to think about how self sufficient we really are. It's easy to think that we'll always have what we have now, but who knows what the future has in store for us? War on American soil? famines? inability to purchase or obtain things we normally have access to? job lay-offs? I figure it's better to learn how to deal with those situations before we actually get to them.

I promise I'm not a pessimist. I don't sit here and think about doom and gloom all day long.
I do, however, think it's good to prepare for unforeseen circumstances.

With the help of my parents earlier this year, we finally started a real food storage. You know, with wheat and all that good stuff. We don't have as much as I'd like, but it's a good start. With wheat you need a grinder, so we researched and researched. We went back and forth on the electric or hand grinder. We decided that for a true emergency situation, we needed to have a hand grinder first. So, I purchased a Wondermill Junior Deluxe. It was almost as expensive as an electric nutrimill, but in all my research I found that most hand grinders were ridiculously difficult to use, and that most couldn't even get the wheat fine enough for flour to make bread. One day I'd like to also own the nutrimill.

While I've had the Junior Delux for a couple of months, I used it for the first time this week, just to see how hard it was, and how fine I could get the flour. It took me about 1/2 hour to grind 5 cups of flour, and I worked up a light sweat. It wasn't particularly difficult, but it did take a little time and effort. There was something earthy and satisfying about it, I have to admit. I had to do two passes through the stones to get it fine enough for flour. There was a little bit of grit from the stones grinding (normal for the first use), but not tons. My biggest problem with it was that I have no good place to hook it. My kitchen table is not set up right for it, and I have no other surface the right height. What I ended up using was my portable craft table, but it bent the table a bit and kept slipping off. So, I'm going to have to build something. The bread turned out quite nicely. All in all, I'm happy with the purchase. I can grind oily things (like flax, nuts, etc.) in it too since we got the steel burs as well.

Earlier this year I also ordered some freeze dried and dehydrated foods from THRIVE that you can't get at the cannery. Broccoli, butter, cheese, some fruits, etc. I really want to open and try them, but I want to save them for now "just in case". I've heard really good reviews about their food though. I would like to get some MREs and full freeze dried or dehydrated meals for our 72 hour kits, but they're a little pricey. Maybe one day.

We finally filled up our 50 gallon water barrels after having them sit empty in our garage for 3 years! We have 2 cases of bottled water in our car and 4 or 5 gallons in the house in case we have to leave quickly or if our water supply is cut. I do need to go through my 72 hour kits and update the food. I'm basically going to throw out the junk (you know, like ramen and what not) and put in a couple canisters of Isagenix shakes, a shaker cup and some Isagenix bars. Much, much healthier, longer shelf life, more meals, and all you need is water (no heat!).

Another food thing I've had on my mind is food staples. I would like to know how to and be able to: pressure can, make any pantry staple that I couldn't live without from scratch with my food storage, sprout things, make my own jelly, etc. I have decided to stop buying tortillas and bread products and make them myself. I did that occasionally anyway, but I'm really trying to crack down on my non-existent food budget and spend less in that area. I have good recipes for tortillas (white or wheat), french bread, pitas with some tips from me here, hamburger/hot dog buns, biscuits, oatmeal/wheat pancake mix, granola, pizza dough, and cornbread. (Hey, that just reminded me that I need to get some popcorn into my food storage since my grinder and grind that down into corn meal...) I tried making crackers, and they were ok. Too thick, without much "crack" to them, but edible. The boys really liked them. If I had a pasta roller I think it would be much easier to get them thin enough and uniform thickness. While we don't eat pasta much, I've made my own before and know I can do it. I also got a pretty good recipe for oat and jam bars (nutrigrain knock offs), but just like nutrigrain bars, they were a bit too sweet for me. At least when you're making them you can adjust that, right?! =) Sweetness aside, they were really good, though.

Next on my list to try: bagels. We don't care much for store bagels and I want to see if I can get a good deli-like bagel going. I'd also really like a dehydrator so I can try some raw recipes. While I don't think that a completely raw lifestyle is very doable for us, I would love to learn more about it and find recipes that work easily for us and incorporate them into our pantry/menu.

TX (at least our area) is not very great for gardening, but we have been faithful in our gardening efforts the last 4 years to improve and make it work here. We've done tons of soil conditioning since it's mostly clay here. We're hoping that next year it will be better after all we did this year. I figure, it's better to know what grows well, what doesn't, etc. now instead of trying to figure it all out if we ever had to rely on our garden! We know that we are done trying zucchini/squash because the vine borers are out of control!!!! We even bought resistant plants this year and the stupid pests were just too much for them. Grr. At least we know.

As most of you know, I switched to cloth diapers because I couldn't shake this feeling that I needed to for preparedness purposes. Overall it's been fine. There are problems and annoyances here and there, but I can do it, and I like knowing that. I use disposables with them at night and occasionally for church, but we've been fine otherwise. Again, there's something earthy and satisfying about seeing diapers hung up outside to dry, and bringing them in all stiff and putting them in the drier to fluff up a bit.

While I don't really think I'll be having to make my own furniture, it's nice to know that I know how to use a drill, glue, and a saw if I needed to! I made a picnic table for the boys this summer and it was a great learning process!

Sewing. I've really upped my sewing skills this past year. I know how to draft a simple skirt pattern. I've learned that you can refashion lots of old clothes. I've learned how to piece a quilt and and how to quilt it.

Wow. So I had not intended on using my evening to blog this, but that's where I ended up! Maybe someone out there needed a little inspiration. Anyway, I may periodically check in on this when I figure out how to do other things that I want to learn.

Walter at 1 year

Well, we took Walt to his 1 year check up last week, and while I haven't been blogging much, I figured it was a good milestone to record.

The good: he's right on track with all development. After talking to the urologist he doesn't have to have surgery, though we'll check back in a year to make sure. After talking to the ENT, he doesn't need tubes in his ear, though we'll have another check up next week to make sure he's still in the clear.

The bad: he's anemic. He was at 10 mo. and he was still anemic (though a little less) at 12 mo. We weren't very good about giving him his iron supplement, so we're trying to be much better. She said if he fails it again next month, we'll have to do other tests and junk. boo.

The stats:
Weight: 23.12 (61%)
Height: 30 3/4 (75%)
Head Circ.: 18 1/2 (65%)

Some things about him at this stage:

He LOVES to climb.



The dismount from the table.
He's pretty good at getting down from his climbs, though he screams for me occasionally.

He HATES having his diaper changed.
If he knows I'm coming to change him, he crawls as fast as he possibly can as far away as he possibly can! I generally have to grab him and bring him back to where I'm changing him 3-4 times during 1 diaper change!

A recent development is that he takes his diaper off if I don't put shorts on him immediately.
I've found him naked (and covered in pee -- no poop thankfully) after more than 1 nap! I never once had that happen with Dean!

He still loves food. He generally eats all of his food PLUS whatever Dean doesn't eat of his! (Not to mention all the food he gleans off the floor!!) He probably eats twice as much solid food as Dean. I mean, the kid ate Chinese stir-fry with assorted veggies and fish tonight.
Ate it and loved it.

He throws up if I give him too much milk at once, so I can't ever give him a full sippy.

I can still get him to take a nap at church if I have him in the ergo and cover his head with the little shade thing.

He often buries his head on his bed or on the floor either when he's tired or acting shy.

His eyes are the most brilliant blue.

He loves to feed me and will put whatever I'll allow in my mouth.

He's very close to walking. He's constantly standing up in the middle of the room to do things. The most successive steps he's taken on his own was 3-4, and he was going a bit diagonal. =) He'll frequently take one step and then go down to finish crawling.

His words: Mom! Mom!! No, no, no, no. Dad. Yeah. He shakes his head yes, no, and shrugs his shoulders. He waves goodbye. When he wants me, he beckons me with the "come here" hands (the reverse wave).

He really tries his darnedest to keep up with Dean.
Here he's trying to climb out of the tub, but Dean's doing his best to help keep him in!



Here's a video of him climbing on top of the picnic table. Silly kid.

My piano website is up!

I have been working very hard this week trying to get a piano business plan and website. Hopefully I'll post different teaching ideas, links I find helpful, games that worked for me, etc. as I go along. If I don't do anything else with it, though, it has a blurb about me, my studio policies, prices, what books I use, and contact info. So, feel free to browse through it and let me know if I've made any blaring mistakes or left something important out. I would like to add a "testimonial" page where I have little blurbs from past students, parents, and/or music teachers praising my awesomeness. =)

The site is: Come Play Piano! (the actual web address is comeplaypiano.blogspot.com)

While putting it together I was pleased with blogger's new template designer and especially happy they have an automatic widget for the horizontal navigation bar.

Oh, and my friend Erin, who's an awesome licensed interior designer (and an incredible entrepreneur with all of her other craftsy endeavors), helped me sketch up possible rearrangement plans so I can fit my electric piano and a computer into my little living room (along with my couch, chair and a half, piano, and hutch/filing cabinet, tv, and shoe storage!). She also helped me with a color scheme, so hopefully I can go get some paint and fabric, and get to redesigning so this place looks more professional!! (Can I say I'm so happy she's back in Dallas! She took a year with her husband to go to Chicago for grad school and just moved back.)

The other thing I've been working a lot this week is getting a preschool co-op put together. I am heading up a group of young mothers who will rotate teaching. I've put together music lists, schedule outlines, forms and documents to help us get started, lesson plan ideas, calendars for the next school year, etc. I hope we can get it working and that we'll enjoy the set up. We started with 5 kids, one's already dropped out, and another has concerns. I think, though, 3-4 is a good number.

Piano Studio

When I had Walt, I took a break from piano teaching. Losing my (albeit meager) income and adding a dependent, we really felt a hit.

I had planned on teaching again in January, but between students moving and poor economy, I found myself with no students! That was a shock, but it was nice to continue spending unlimited time with my boys.

Now that fall is rolling around again, I'm trying to get my piano studio rolling again, bigger and better than ever (cross your fingers). I'm trying to ramp up my teaching implements, games, and theory. I'll also be accepting younger students than I ever have before. I will most likely join Plano Music Teacher's Association as well, though we'll see if they accept me without a bachelor's in music arts, teaching or piano performance.

I am going to teach 1 hour over lapping lessons. The kids will have a loose 20-20-20 system of piano time with me, theory worksheets/games/computer, and practicing at my electric piano with headphones. I'm trying to figure out the particulars with my living room set up since it's pretty small, but I'm pretty sure it's doable. I'm also hoping to trade out babysitting for lessons so I don't have any baby distractions while teaching. That will be VERY helpful since it was pretty difficult and distracting after I had Dean.

As I try and get my studio in order, I will probably be blogging less, crafting less, and hopefully working more efficiently to build a strong business. If you don't see me around often, that's where I'll most likely be.

First pair of running shoes

I got my first pair of running shoes when I was a freshman in High School. As I ran in the 10K last weekend in Snowflake, I kept thinking about how much better I am at running now than when I was in High School Cross Country. I remember just dying at meets. Sure I was running a little faster then, but I have a lot better stamina now. I was really happy with my time of 51.55. I was hoping for something under 60 min. I think when I run with my double stroller (about 80 lbs total) I go about 11 min. miles, so I was pleasantly surprised I could run almost 8.5 min. miles by myself!! Between miles 2 and 3 I felt like I was going to puke big time, but once I hit 3 I burped and I felt so much better. The second half of the race I kept thinking "I'm just now starting to run" to make it feel like I was only running a 3 mile race. I think it helped. I wonder if I could have run even faster/better if my mp3 player had been working...

I really wanted to kick it up the last 2 miles and I focused on catching "gray shirt" in front of me. I caught him with about 1/2 a mile to go and we sprinted in together. I finished a split second behind him. I think I was about the 6th woman in, which isn't bad, but I didn't medal because the other women before me were also in my age group (20-29). I nearly puked when I came in, but boy was I happy with the race when all was said an done. I didn't drink enough water, though, so I felt pretty darn crappy a couple hours later and the rest of the day. I need to get a fuel belt for sure. That happens every time I run 6 mi. or more.

The other day I saw the cutest little pair of new balance running shoes at Kid to Kid and they happened to be the perfect size for Dean. So I bought them for a whopping $6. So worth it.




We got a video of him jogging with them, but the cutest thing about it was when he ran out of the shade into the light and noticed his shadow. The rest of the video he watches what his shadow is doing.

Walt's birthday party at home

Chocolate zucchini cake with a chocolate butter cream frosting. It was really quite delicious and made a fabulous mess.

For these first two videos, I suggest you watch without sound! Too much going on. Dean's toe gets smashed at one point. I don't know, I wish I could edit these. The audio drives me nuts. I almost didn't post them, but there are really cute moments in the videos I figured I'd put them on for the grandparents if no one else.

Walt's shirt from Grandma and Grandpa Bras(s)

Opening Walt's present.
Dean was so excited about the present he kept shouting "Go Walter! Go!!"

Here are the boys playing with Walt's water table. Dean got some potting soil from the garden before I was out. They were having a ball, but I decided potting soil was NOT the best type of dirt to be used in this application, so right after I took the video I cleaned it all out. Don't want Walt to be eating fertilizer...

The first step

Tonight Walter took his first step all by himself. He stood himself up in the middle of the living room without holding on to anything, stood there a few seconds, smiled at my coaxes, and stepped. He only made it one step, but he was excited. We repeated the process a couple of times. It was cute.

Here's a video of him walking with a push toy about 2 weeks ago.

Walter's first birthday

Happy Birthday to my little Walter!

We had a fun double birthday party for Walter and Charlie (his cousin who is 2 days older) while we were in Snowflake. We had originally planned on making cakes, but by Saturday we were pretty burned out, so we picked some up from Bashas' bakery. When we mentioned it was for 2 babies turning 1, the woman from the bakery got all excited and gave us 2 free cupcakes with cute dogs piped on top. It was perfect so they could dig into their cupcakes without ruining the cakes we bought for everyone else. They also had a cousin turning 9 tomorrow so we were celebrating 3 birthdays.






Here's another video where you can see the other birthday boy, Charlie. His sister Molly is holding him.



Tonight we had a "party" for Walter here. He got to open his one present from us (a water table/sink thing), a card from his great grandma Bras(s), and a card and shirt from his Bras(s) grandparents. I also made a chocolate zucchini cake for him. Dean was SO excited for both the present and the cake. Dean spontaneously started singing happy birthday and cheered Walter on as he was opening his present. He wanted to feed Walt the cake. It was all very cute and fantastically messy. Our camera battery died during the party, so we didn't document everything, but I"ll post the pics and videos we did get once the battery is charged again.

The rest of the...clothes

Ok girls. Here are the rest of the clothes I purchased in the last 3 weeks! I hope you enjoy your virtual fashion show. =) Overall I got 20 pieces of clothing, 2 pairs of shoes, and 5 necklaces for around $300. Considering I heard on the news yesterday that the average parent spends $450 on EACH child at the beginning of every school year, I think I did ok. I mean, c'mon. I've never really shopped in my 29 years of life. Hopefully now that I have some staples I shouldn't have to purchase much more...so long as I can keep this shopping monster under control!! =) The only outfit I can still take back is the brown patterned skirt and sweetheart neck brown shirt. The rest are mine for keeps.

White shirt and dressy brown shorts
Brown Asian inspired top (with same brown shorts)
Maroon Shirt and black pencil skirt
Turquoise skirt (and shirt, though you've seen that before)
Yellow and green shirt (this was purchased on my own. I wasn't so sure of it, but it was kind of fun and bright, and I wanted something not so dark)
Brown Shirt and Patterned skirt (Too old lady?? This is the one I'm on the fence about. Matt says he likes it.)
Black and green paisly shirt and black dressy capris (one of my favs)
Purple and black shirt and black pants (my favorite of all the outfits I think)
Black blousey shirt (gray capris purchased earlier this year)
Royal blue shirt and black casual capris (I think I might use this for family pics...what do you think, this or the turquoise shirt?)
Purple dress and black shoes (pictured in previous post)
Hot pink skirt (pictured in previous post)

My fashion progression

I've never really considered myself a fashionable person. Cute, but not quite fashionable. In high school I kind of did my own thing. As far as I remember I didn't really dress like my friends. Maybe I did, and I just think I was "original". I did, however, wear make up at that point. (1999)



In college I started toning it down a bit. The fantastic thing about college clothing was living with 5 other girls!!! The cutest outfits I wore were rarely owned or purchased by me. The bad thing about that was the [lack of] clothing shock when I got married! I never really recovered from that.

Right before Matt came home from his mission, I remember going shopping with my sister in VA at Kohls. It was the first time I'd heard of that store. Anyway, I bought myself some orange plaid capris. When Matt saw them, he told me that they looked like pajamas and that it was almost embarrassing to be out with me while I was wearing those. Ouch! haha. I got rid of them pretty quickly, and honestly, I think that was the beginning of the end of colorful clothes. (Looking at an old pic of them, they were pretty ugly, so don't judge Matt too harshly. I was trying to be fashionable, but just didn't know how, so I basically just gave up the notion.) Oh, and once he mentioned that I looked better without make up and I stopped wearing that! I figured it was cheaper and easier, so I was on board!!

In the last few years, I've ended up going with the most very basic of basics. Solid, fitted knit shirts from Target or Walmart. Kahki capris and shorts. I'm talking basic. The only dress/skirt purchases I've made in the past 10 years were during pregnancies. And when I bought those I got nice and stretchy dresses so I could wear them when I was not pregnant!

When I went to Phantom in Feb. with my friend Kirstin, I realized that I didn't have one decent shirt. Not one. After that I bought a few shirts from Target (all the same shirt in different colors!) and slacks from Old Navy to tide me over.

It wasn't until a week before our scheduled family pictures that I realized that even those weren't quite cute enough to be professionally photographed and documented for posterity's sake. So, as part of a trade for piano, I asked my friend Kary (who loves fashion and helps mainly frumpy mothers find a style) to teach me to shop.

Being from rural Snowflake where we don't even have a Walmart, I've never really known how to shop. I didn't know where to shop. I honestly don't think I've ever known what size I am. I couldn't ever find pants that fit both my waist and legs. I've always felt like the women's section was too "old lady" and the juniors/miss section has just gotten uglier and uglier every year (um, maybe that's a sign that I'm not a 'junior" any more and that I'm out of touch with the young kids now a days. hahahaha.)

2 days before our pictures we went shopping for 3.5 hours straight. We hit 6 stores. She had lists of things I needed. We were in and out. No messing around. Most importantly, I found out what size I am, what sections and stores to shop, and general ideas of what looks good on me. Pencil skirts. Wedge shoes if I want some height. Skirts just below or in the middle of my knee or to my ankle, but nothing mid-calf. I'm generally a size 4 petite in pants and a small in tops. It's nice to be able to go into a store and grab a wad of clothes and have the majority of them fit properly! Oh, and I found that when you shop a little higher quality than Old Navy, Target, and Walmart, pants actually fit me properly! We got me make up, jewelry, shoes, dressier shirts and pants and skirts. I felt like I was channeling my maternal great-grandmother when I bought my hot pink skirt.

So, in the past 2 1/2 weeks I've purchased:
2 black capris, black pants, dark brown dressy shorts, hot pink pencil skirt, black pencil skirt, purple dress, a patterned skirt, 8 or so shirts, black wedge sandals, light brown strappy wedge sandals, 5 necklace/earring combos (from the dollar store till I figure out what kind of jewelry I actually like), 2 eye shadows, mascara, lip gloss. Am I missing anything? It feels like it...

These aren't great pictures. I had Matt quickly snap them when I got home from shopping so I could see what photographed ok. I wasn't smiling in any of them, so I cut off my head! =) I've been trying to photograph my other clothes, but Matt's been working tons and I don't have a tri-pod, so I've been pretty unsuccessful. My shirts are where all the pattern is lest you think I got all solids...




I didn't feel like I'd quite gotten what I wanted for pictures, but I felt more confident in my ability to shop, so the next day I went out by myself. I felt like a contestant on What Not to Wear, trying to follow rules and find things that were out of my comfort zone but cute. I found this shirt and I felt happy enough with how it worked with the clothes I got for Matt and the boys. Paired with a cute necklace and dressier capris it makes a pretty cute outfit.



Our pictures got rained out and rescheduled for August. But that was fine. I felt like our outfits needed a little fine tuning anyway. I went shopping again. For a person who hasn't done much shopping at all in my life, I have been a shopping maniac the last few weeks!! I actually want to go again tomorrow to find a few more casual, yet cute tops that I can wear on a daily basis.

I have to admit, I am kind of liking wearing a little make up again (mascara and very subtle eye shadow and lip gloss), and I've really enjoyed (*gasp*) shopping. It's fun looking cute. I hope I don't start enjoying it too much!! Being a plain Jane has definitely been kind on the pocket book.

Cold Turkey

Well, Walt has pretty much weaned himself cold turkey. Last night when I tried to feed him it was immediate chomping. I let him try both sides, but all he wanted to do was teeth. Same story this morning when he woke up, at church, at nap, and again this evening. I refuse to be a teething toy, and he obviously is not interested in nursing. Luckily he's 2 weeks from 1 year so I'm just going straight to cow's milk. He's been stealing Dean's sippies and sucking down his left overs for weeks now. I hope it will make it a little easier for our trip to AZ that's coming up soon here.

I didn't do this with Dean. I did a VERY gradual weaning with him, and it was after I was pregnant with Walt. I think I was 8 weeks pregnant with Walt when I finally weaned Dean from his night and morning feedings. So, I had no pain when I stopped nursing him. Not so with Walter.

Ouch. Cold Turkey is definitely more painful. I think tomorrow I may bust (pun intended) out the cabbage and give it a try depending on how I feel.

(The black mark on Walter's head is soot from playing in our fireplace. He LOVES it in there.)

Land of the Free

I'm grateful I live in this country. I think my appreciation for America and personal freedom skyrocketed after having lived in China for 6 months. It's been 9 years, but I still remember how grateful I was to come home and be able to do things like go to church without meeting clandestinely and to come and go as I pleased without military personnel watching my every move. Oh, and it's also nice to be able to give a speech without a party member writing or rewriting it. I think Americans often forget or don't realize what we have.

As I see it, this freedom comes from at least 2 sources:

1. A promise from God that if we obey his commandments and are faithful, we [who live in this Promised Land] will prosper and be kept safe. If we turn from God, this promise is void. So, let's be good little boys and girls and remember to whom we are indebted! I personally prefer the protection of God to the protection of a government who removes God from the equation.
   
2. The men and women who give their time and their lives to serve and protect and maintain our freedom. It would be unimaginably difficult to be a military family, but I am forever grateful for the people who are willing to give their lives that we might live a life with freedom from oppression.

And to celebrate tonight, I will leave you with some pictures and videos of my cute boys.

Recent happenings

We went to the beach again this week. When I was trying to get the boys showered off before we went home, I had them both stripped down naked. I set Walt in the stroller but didn't strap him in. I turned to help Dean turn on the water and smash! Walter tried to climb out and did a major face plant onto the concrete. Not two minutes later Dean wanted to turn the water off before me, so he ran in his sandals on the wet concrete, slipped and got pretty bad road rash on his bum. I felt horrible. Two screaming, injured, naked babies. Oi. Walt's nose was bleeding. Luckily he just got scraped up. His nose still looks pretty bad and he got road rash above and below his eye. I'm just glad it wasn't worse. They both fell asleep before we even made it out off state park property! I don't have a pic of his face yet, but you can see it in the video I'll link.

He's a crazy climber, though, so I doubt this will be the end of the injuries! I mean, just look at him climbing up Dean's step stool. He gets very frustrated when he climbs up and there's no water in the sink for him to splash in!


I got some new painting supplies for Dean and he has been LOVING them. I got paint, a little paint roller and some dot paints. By 6:30 this morning he was asking to "do crafts"! Today I just let him free paint. Yesterday we did F is for fireworks and Flag for the up coming 4th. He calls the dot paints fireworks now. =) We also made a very hungry caterpillar since he wanted to do more crafts with his new paints. (Dean took the second F picture "Dean want to take a picture for the flag." Every time he wants to take a picture of something he says he wants to take a picture for something.)


I finished building the toddler picnic table today. I nearly finished yesterday. I had 2 screws left and I hit a knot and split my board! I was so furious. I totally cried and everything. (Though I started my period today, a week early, and that may have had something to do with my crying. Once a month I break down over something. Never fail!) I just need to sand and paint it.

Walter's starting to talk a little more. He says mama, dada, uh oh (occasionally), and no, no, no (though it sounds more like na, na, na). He also shakes his head no and yes and can usually get it right. The second one is him trying to climb onto the finished picnic table.

To the Father of my Children

Happy Father's day. You probably won't ever read this, but thanks for being a wonderful daddy and for adding your good looking genes to my good looking genes so we have darling children.

We had a fun day at the lake...

but I think I need to hire a better sunscreen helper! haha.

Just kidding. It's so hard to get the whole sun screen thing down. Walt, Dean and I all walked away from the lake with some sort of burn. I on my back. Dean on his arms. Walt on one foot and a little on both legs. Oops.

Matt says we're not allowed to go back until I learn how to apply sun screen properly and timely. It's so hard with sand and water and no water proof watch!

Lake Ray Roberts is just about 40 min. from us. It's really fun. There's a group of women about my age with kids (ranging from about 10 yrs. to under a year) who go there about once a week. Thursday is the standard day. I hope we get to go a whole lot more this summer (and also hope this is the worst of the sunburns!!).

Oh, and Dean FINALLY went in the water! And he really enjoyed it. He's never really liked pools and refuses to play on splash pads at parks. But with a little tube and good life jacket, he had loads of fun floating "on his own".

Walt loved the beach almost too much! After we got home he had an explosive diaper full of sand! He ate a lot of it the first 20 min. we were there. =) Silly boy.